Your Precious Land

Great Plains Farmland Values Surge 19% to 30%

Farmland values across the Great Plains boomed 19% to 30% higher in 2012, according to a survey of bankers conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The Fed bank, which serves Kansas, northwest Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and the mountain states of Colorado, Wyoming and northern New Mexico, reports the value of district irrigated cropland exploded by 30% on an annual basis, Nearly half of that increase (14%) came during the fourth quarter alone, the bank states. In addition, the bank says cash rents on irrigated cropland rose 20% by the end of 2012 compared to a year earlier.

The bank says the value of non-irrigated cropland in the district rose 25% in 2012 and the value of district ranchland rose 19%. Cash rents for non-irrigated cropland rose 14.6% and 12.9% for ranchland. Survey respondents report farmers composed 74% of all farmland buyers. The bank observes that the value of irrigated cropland has out-paced the rise in the value of non-irrigated cropland by 3% since the onset of the drought. Prior to the drought, the value of both types of cropland rose at approximately the same rate, the bank says.

Kansas reports the highest percentage increases in the value of farmland with non-irrigated cropland up 29.2%, irrigated cropland up 33.8% and ranchland up 26%. Nebraska follows with gains of 26.8% for non-irrigated cropland, 32% for irrigated cropland and 27% for ranchland. Northwest Missouri reports a rise of 24.2% in the value of non-irrigated cropland and a 10.3% boost in the value of ranch/pastureland. The mountain states report a rise of 20.6% in the value of non-irrigated cropland, a 31% increase in the value of irrigated cropland and a gain of 10% in the value of ranchland. Oklahoma reports an increase of 9.3% in the value of non-irrigated cropland, a boost of 10.9% in the value of irrigated cropland and a rise of 11.6% in the value of ranchland.